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I've been in and out of the game for the last couple years. It's a lot of fun, but very challenging, and unless you know someone personally in that game, you CANNOT trust them. Backstabbing and theft is how the game works. Do not expect honor amongst theives. Never store items that you cannot replace in stations that your corps have offices in, because they may be able to raid your stuff.

To be good, you have to devote time. Unlike other games where you can buy gear on auction houses and the like, you literally need to spend time learning the skills to make things work. I think I have roughly 6 months worth of game time, and that makes me a somewhat legitimate pilot. 6 months of skill training has made me competent at flying and fighting with certain ships. I know people who have 2 years worth of skill time and in certain company they'd be chumps.

From what I know of you Gator, I doubt there will be a whole lot you'd enjoy about the game. Like I mentioned at first, it thrives on being a dirtbag. Piracy is the quickest and easiest way to make money. Also the most thrilling. And the game developers encourage the behavior. Corporations and alliances have literally lost tens of thousands of dollars (real world money) due to corporate theivery and other shenanigans. Being a high sec miner can be entertaining for a short time, but it gets boring after a while, and you'll want to start expanding your operations, getting into low/null sec things, and that's when it gets ugly.

If you stick with it let me know. I can direct you to a corp that's got some decent folks in it. They are pirates, but I do know one of the guys who runs it personally and he's not the type who'd screw you over. Just other people.

Basically, it's digital distribution. You download the steam client, and get an account. Then buy games associated with the account (pretty much anything you could want is on steam these days) and then it goes into your purchased game library. Steam has all sorts of deals running (this week it's like 50% off a bunch of stuff). And you can download/install them on any machine through the steam client. Keeps track of all the updates for you. Some games you can put your saves on the cloud, so when you install on a new machine it keeps your saves.

Just like any other hobby or activity there are people who get to involved in it. A lot of video gaming I do involves games with indepth stories that will rival any novel out there, or games that provide social aspects. Multiplayer games that I get to play with all the friends I have scattered around the world. I can't hang out with them, so I might as well sit down for an evening playing some silly FPS and drinking a few beers while we bullshit and just have fun.

In most sports, cold-cocking an opposing player repeatedly in the face with a series of gigantic Slovakian uppercuts would get you a multi-game suspension without pay.

In hockey, it means you have to sit in the penalty box for five minutes.